01 02 03 Miss Smartie's Sewing: The Secretary Blouse 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

The Secretary Blouse

34
Hi there, I've made myself useful over the last few months and taught myself how to draw patterns digitally. I wanted To make some patterns that would fit Both Me and a friend so I've had to tackle grading as well. Since I fell in love with american sewing patterns, love at first use you could say, I also had to incorporate seam allowances, notches and other symbols. This was harder than I thought it would be. There were a lot of failed attempts but every time I messed up I learnt something new so I got up and went on tinkering with CAD-programs and looking for a way to make these patterns printable.

At last I think I have succeeded. A digital pattern of my own design print and share ready. I'll give a review of the Style on this page and you'll find additional pages with the pattern itself, instructions on the measurements system and on how to put everything together in the end. I've made this style for myself as a test piece (and yes discovering a couple of flaws that I had overlooked) and I'll use this for a step by step construction guide of the pattern. A small disclaimer: I'm no professional pattern designer so some notches and symbols might be of by a couple of mm. While constructing most pieces went together fine however. I'd suggest walking the pattern in your size as a precaution to make sure everything is perfect in one go. If you find any mistakes I'd be happy to correct them for later users. In the meantime, have fun sewing!

Measurement and pattern
Construction part 1
Construction part 2
Pattern adjustment tutorial

Inspiration

inspiration dress by pin-up couture
I've been in love with the retro jet modern designs of pin-up/rockabilly clothing for a while now. I love how they combine a very feminine look with a modern twist. I also like to look good but be comfortable in my clothes. That's when the idea of a stretch shirt first started appealing to me. The look that started it all for this pattern was the secretary dress by Pin Up Couture. I've posted a picture above. It prompted me to attempt my first high waisted skirts and I kept dreaming of a blouse that would look equally stunning. I soon realised I hadn't found this design in any shop yet and I started to wonder on how I could possibly recreate this look myself. I didn't go for an exact copy of the dress but I wanted to copy the look of the collar and cuffs.

Design specifics

design sketch of the blouse
This blouse is very fitted and features a large plunging neckline in a classic collar style. I myself like fitted blouses and I wanted something special but comfortable. That's why I chose stretchy fabric.I really liked the way the collar and cuffs stand out in the inspiration piece. I decided To Go with princess seams in the front and the back to give the garment it's shape. I love how these seams accentuate the female form.  I wanted to hide the necessary crossing of the center pieces in the front seam to give everything a more finished look. This also ensures that the garment is still modest enough.  I wanted the collar to look like a kind of halter and achieved this by making the neckline pretty  narrow in the back. This accounts for the very broad shoulderseams. I think these fit the look.
The whole thing is finished with a front and back facing, the front facing is also an armhole facing, this makes sure that the collar stays where it should be. It also allowed me to use the facing as a modesty measure to make see through fabricks opaque.

finished garment front
back

As I mentioned this design has been made with stretch fabrics in mind. Do not attempt do do otherwise unless you want to change the fabric. I learnt the hard way seeing that my fabric, although a stretch fabric wouldn't stretch far enough to take the garment on and of comfortably. It looks good though and feels OK while wearing it, so I just added a zipper in the side seam. To make sure the fabric for this Blouse is stretchy enough ten cm of folded fabric should be able to stretch to 14 cm.

Process



For those who are interested I'll give a quick overview of the process I went through making this pattern. I started out by pinning the design lines that I wanted to achieve on a mannequin with woollen threads as you can see above. When I was happy with the overall result I pined some fabric paper on my mannequin and traced the lines I wanted. I achieved a first 2D pattern that way. Next I cleaned up the design lines while adding the necessary design ease. I then averaged (essentially I made sure seams that had to go together in the end matched up while flat) the design to make sure the seams would fit more nicely while sewing everything up and the result would look cleaner.
I then went into CAD and drew the pattern digitally. Since I don't have any real means of digitising I had to use good old geometry to transfer the design. I then began by adding notches, and placement marks walking and checking these again digitally. The next step was adding grading, and transferring the pattern to something printable. I've used illustrator for this purpose (since I don't own any programs that would allow me to print on an ordinary printer) and it works pretty well. The only downside is that the pattern sizes lose their formatting and some of the pattern lines and especially notches get distorted. This adds a lot of work, formatting the sizing, adding markings by hand witch then have to be walked and checked by hand again and sometimes redrawing parts of the pattern (especially the armholes and the front facing). I sincerely hope that the pattern turned out ok. I've already made up my base size (the one that fit's the mannequin) and that went pretty well. I'm going to make up a bigger size for a friend to test the grading. So far everything looks good though.

I'll finish with some extra pictures of the garment:








Labels: , , , ,

35 36 37 38 body { background:#aba; margin:0; padding:20px 10px; text-align:center; font:x-small/1.5em "Trebuchet MS",Verdana,Arial,Sans-serif; color:#333; font-size/* */:/**/small; font-size: /**/small; } /* Page Structure ----------------------------------------------- */ /* The images which help create rounded corners depend on the following widths and measurements. If you want to change these measurements, the images will also need to change. */ @media all { #content { width:740px; margin:0 auto; text-align:left; } #main { width:485px; float:left; background:#fff url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_main_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; margin:15px 0 0; padding:0 0 10px; color:#000; font-size:97%; line-height:1.5em; } #main2 { float:left; width:100%; background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_main_top.gif") no-repeat left top; padding:10px 0 0; } #main3 { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/rails_main.gif") repeat-y; padding:0; } #sidebar { width:240px; float:right; margin:15px 0 0; font-size:97%; line-height:1.5em; } } @media handheld { #content { width:90%; } #main { width:100%; float:none; background:#fff; } #main2 { float:none; background:none; } #main3 { background:none; padding:0; } #sidebar { width:100%; float:none; } } /* Links ----------------------------------------------- */ a:link { color:#258; } a:visited { color:#666; } a:hover { color:#c63; } a img { border-width:0; } /* Blog Header ----------------------------------------------- */ @media all { #header { background:#456 url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_top.gif") no-repeat left top; margin:0 0 0; padding:8px 0 0; color:#fff; } #header div { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; padding:0 15px 8px; } } @media handheld { #header { background:#456; } #header div { background:none; } } #blog-title { margin:0; padding:10px 30px 5px; font-size:200%; line-height:1.2em; } #blog-title a { text-decoration:none; color:#fff; } #description { margin:0; padding:5px 30px 10px; font-size:94%; line-height:1.5em; } /* Posts ----------------------------------------------- */ .date-header { margin:0 28px 0 43px; font-size:85%; line-height:2em; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.2em; color:#357; } .post { margin:.3em 0 25px; padding:0 13px; border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:1px 0; } .post-title { margin:0; font-size:135%; line-height:1.5em; background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_arrow.gif") no-repeat 10px .5em; display:block; border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:0 1px 1px; padding:2px 14px 2px 29px; color:#333; } a.title-link, .post-title strong { text-decoration:none; display:block; } a.title-link:hover { background-color:#ded; color:#000; } .post-body { border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:0 1px 1px; border-bottom-color:#fff; padding:10px 14px 1px 29px; } html>body .post-body { border-bottom-width:0; } .post p { margin:0 0 .75em; } p.post-footer { background:#ded; margin:0; padding:2px 14px 2px 29px; border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:1px; border-bottom:1px solid #eee; font-size:100%; line-height:1.5em; color:#666; text-align:right; } html>body p.post-footer { border-bottom-color:transparent; } p.post-footer em { display:block; float:left; text-align:left; font-style:normal; } a.comment-link { /* IE5.0/Win doesn't apply padding to inline elements, so we hide these two declarations from it */ background/* */:/**/url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 0 45%; padding-left:14px; } html>body a.comment-link { /* Respecified, for IE5/Mac's benefit */ background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 0 45%; padding-left:14px; } .post img { margin:0 0 5px 0; padding:4px; border:1px solid #ccc; } blockquote { margin:.75em 0; border:1px dotted #ccc; border-width:1px 0; padding:5px 15px; color:#666; } .post blockquote p { margin:.5em 0; } /* Comments ----------------------------------------------- */ #comments { margin:-25px 13px 0; border:1px dotted #ccc; border-width:0 1px 1px; padding:20px 0 15px 0; } #comments h4 { margin:0 0 10px; padding:0 14px 2px 29px; border-bottom:1px dotted #ccc; font-size:120%; line-height:1.4em; color:#333; } #comments-block { margin:0 15px 0 9px; } .comment-data { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 2px .3em; margin:.5em 0; padding:0 0 0 20px; color:#666; } .comment-poster { font-weight:bold; } .comment-body { margin:0 0 1.25em; padding:0 0 0 20px; } .comment-body p { margin:0 0 .5em; } .comment-timestamp { margin:0 0 .5em; padding:0 0 .75em 20px; color:#666; } .comment-timestamp a:link { color:#666; } .deleted-comment { font-style:italic; color:gray; } .paging-control-container { float: right; margin: 0px 6px 0px 0px; font-size: 80%; } .unneeded-paging-control { visibility: hidden; } /* Profile ----------------------------------------------- */ @media all { #profile-container { background:#cdc url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_prof_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; margin:0 0 15px; padding:0 0 10px; color:#345; } #profile-container h2 { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_prof_top.gif") no-repeat left top; padding:10px 15px .2em; margin:0; border-width:0; font-size:115%; line-height:1.5em; color:#234; } } @media handheld { #profile-container { background:#cdc; } #profile-container h2 { background:none; } } .profile-datablock { margin:0 15px .5em; border-top:1px dotted #aba; padding-top:8px; } .profile-img {display:inline;} .profile-img img { float:left; margin:0 10px 5px 0; border:4px solid #fff; } .profile-data strong { display:block; } #profile-container p { margin:0 15px .5em; } #profile-container .profile-textblock { clear:left; } #profile-container a { color:#258; } .profile-link a { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_profile.gif") no-repeat 0 .1em; padding-left:15px; font-weight:bold; } ul.profile-datablock { list-style-type:none; } /* Sidebar Boxes ----------------------------------------------- */ @media all { .box { background:#fff url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_side_top.gif") no-repeat left top; margin:0 0 15px; padding:10px 0 0; color:#666; } .box2 { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_side_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; padding:0 13px 8px; } } @media handheld { .box { background:#fff; } .box2 { background:none; } } .sidebar-title { margin:0; padding:0 0 .2em; border-bottom:1px dotted #9b9; font-size:115%; line-height:1.5em; color:#333; } .box ul { margin:.5em 0 1.25em; padding:0 0px; list-style:none; } .box ul li { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_arrow_sm.gif") no-repeat 2px .25em; margin:0; padding:0 0 3px 16px; margin-bottom:3px; border-bottom:1px dotted #eee; line-height:1.4em; } .box p { margin:0 0 .6em; } /* Footer ----------------------------------------------- */ #footer { clear:both; margin:0; padding:15px 0 0; } @media all { #footer div { background:#456 url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_top.gif") no-repeat left top; padding:8px 0 0; color:#fff; } #footer div div { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; padding:0 15px 8px; } } @media handheld { #footer div { background:#456; } #footer div div { background:none; } } #footer hr {display:none;} #footer p {margin:0;} #footer a {color:#fff;} /* Feeds ----------------------------------------------- */ #blogfeeds { } #postfeeds { padding:0 15px 0; }

Sunday 11 January 2015

The Secretary Blouse

Hi there, I've made myself useful over the last few months and taught myself how to draw patterns digitally. I wanted To make some patterns that would fit Both Me and a friend so I've had to tackle grading as well. Since I fell in love with american sewing patterns, love at first use you could say, I also had to incorporate seam allowances, notches and other symbols. This was harder than I thought it would be. There were a lot of failed attempts but every time I messed up I learnt something new so I got up and went on tinkering with CAD-programs and looking for a way to make these patterns printable.

At last I think I have succeeded. A digital pattern of my own design print and share ready. I'll give a review of the Style on this page and you'll find additional pages with the pattern itself, instructions on the measurements system and on how to put everything together in the end. I've made this style for myself as a test piece (and yes discovering a couple of flaws that I had overlooked) and I'll use this for a step by step construction guide of the pattern. A small disclaimer: I'm no professional pattern designer so some notches and symbols might be of by a couple of mm. While constructing most pieces went together fine however. I'd suggest walking the pattern in your size as a precaution to make sure everything is perfect in one go. If you find any mistakes I'd be happy to correct them for later users. In the meantime, have fun sewing!

Measurement and pattern
Construction part 1
Construction part 2
Pattern adjustment tutorial

Inspiration

inspiration dress by pin-up couture
I've been in love with the retro jet modern designs of pin-up/rockabilly clothing for a while now. I love how they combine a very feminine look with a modern twist. I also like to look good but be comfortable in my clothes. That's when the idea of a stretch shirt first started appealing to me. The look that started it all for this pattern was the secretary dress by Pin Up Couture. I've posted a picture above. It prompted me to attempt my first high waisted skirts and I kept dreaming of a blouse that would look equally stunning. I soon realised I hadn't found this design in any shop yet and I started to wonder on how I could possibly recreate this look myself. I didn't go for an exact copy of the dress but I wanted to copy the look of the collar and cuffs.

Design specifics

design sketch of the blouse
This blouse is very fitted and features a large plunging neckline in a classic collar style. I myself like fitted blouses and I wanted something special but comfortable. That's why I chose stretchy fabric.I really liked the way the collar and cuffs stand out in the inspiration piece. I decided To Go with princess seams in the front and the back to give the garment it's shape. I love how these seams accentuate the female form.  I wanted to hide the necessary crossing of the center pieces in the front seam to give everything a more finished look. This also ensures that the garment is still modest enough.  I wanted the collar to look like a kind of halter and achieved this by making the neckline pretty  narrow in the back. This accounts for the very broad shoulderseams. I think these fit the look.
The whole thing is finished with a front and back facing, the front facing is also an armhole facing, this makes sure that the collar stays where it should be. It also allowed me to use the facing as a modesty measure to make see through fabricks opaque.

finished garment front
back

As I mentioned this design has been made with stretch fabrics in mind. Do not attempt do do otherwise unless you want to change the fabric. I learnt the hard way seeing that my fabric, although a stretch fabric wouldn't stretch far enough to take the garment on and of comfortably. It looks good though and feels OK while wearing it, so I just added a zipper in the side seam. To make sure the fabric for this Blouse is stretchy enough ten cm of folded fabric should be able to stretch to 14 cm.

Process



For those who are interested I'll give a quick overview of the process I went through making this pattern. I started out by pinning the design lines that I wanted to achieve on a mannequin with woollen threads as you can see above. When I was happy with the overall result I pined some fabric paper on my mannequin and traced the lines I wanted. I achieved a first 2D pattern that way. Next I cleaned up the design lines while adding the necessary design ease. I then averaged (essentially I made sure seams that had to go together in the end matched up while flat) the design to make sure the seams would fit more nicely while sewing everything up and the result would look cleaner.
I then went into CAD and drew the pattern digitally. Since I don't have any real means of digitising I had to use good old geometry to transfer the design. I then began by adding notches, and placement marks walking and checking these again digitally. The next step was adding grading, and transferring the pattern to something printable. I've used illustrator for this purpose (since I don't own any programs that would allow me to print on an ordinary printer) and it works pretty well. The only downside is that the pattern sizes lose their formatting and some of the pattern lines and especially notches get distorted. This adds a lot of work, formatting the sizing, adding markings by hand witch then have to be walked and checked by hand again and sometimes redrawing parts of the pattern (especially the armholes and the front facing). I sincerely hope that the pattern turned out ok. I've already made up my base size (the one that fit's the mannequin) and that went pretty well. I'm going to make up a bigger size for a friend to test the grading. So far everything looks good though.

I'll finish with some extra pictures of the garment:








Labels: , , , ,

posted by Copy Cat Craziness @ 18:03   3 Comments

3 Comments:

At 14 January 2015 at 03:05 , Blogger Shayla Sharp said...

While the neckline is too low for me, the style lines on this are lovely and I could see it made into a one-piece dress with a full skirt (or the wiggle skirt style you have in the photo). Great job with the drafting---that's something I'm hoping to learn!

 
At 14 January 2015 at 10:39 , Blogger Unknown said...

thank you for your comment! I hope you learn to draft to, It's wonderful to be able to bring your ideas to life :)

 
At 15 January 2015 at 09:43 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this nice blouse/shirt pattern! I think I will try to make one.

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home